 Lyndon B. Johnson, 36th President of the United States, is a man close to the people of his native land. And in recent years, close to the people of many lands. Born 55 years ago in the small village of Stonewall in the state of Texas, he was the son of a state legislator. His relationship with people runs the full gamut of human experience. From worker on a construction crew to teacher of youth in his state schools. Lyndon Johnson went to Washington for the first time in 1932. Within two years, he had begun the study of law, married Claudia Taylor, and become a friend and firm supporter of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Five years later, he was elected to the House of Representatives, and 11 years after that to the Senate of the United States. As his party's majority leader, he guided the legislation of the American Congress throughout the Eisenhower administration. In 1955, he fell ill and returned to his beloved ranch to rest and recuperate. Only recovered and with four more years of Senate leadership, there was a groundswell of opinion that urged him to seek the presidential nomination in the convention of 1960. This he did, backed by the honored speaker of the House of Representatives, Sam Rayburn. We think that he is one of the most capable men in the United States. We think by training, by character and by ability, he would make a great president of the United States. John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson both sought the convention's votes in the year of 1960. It was John F. Kennedy who prevailed, and it was now presidential candidate John F. Kennedy who immediately sought out his friend and close associate of the Senate, Lyndon B. Johnson, and asked him to run for the second most important position in the nation, the vice presidency. Johnson accepted. The convention nominated him. He campaigned the country from one border to the other. Where Kennedy could not speak, Johnson spoke. Both pledged to the identical Democratic platform. Both placing before the voters the identical Kennedy policies and ideals. Both men were dedicated to the task of moving the country forward in the 20th century. And on election day, the people of the United States gave the team of Kennedy and Johnson victory at the polls. As vice president, Lyndon Johnson was now president of the Senate. He chaired its sessions and administered the oath of office to its new members. One of them was President Kennedy's younger brother, Senator Edward M. Kennedy. He represented President John F. Kennedy in Manila, carrying with him the goodwill of the United States and assurances that the United States would be prepared to stand fast in defense of freedom when and if it should be challenged. In 1962, the vice president traveled to the embattled land of South Vietnam and made a first-hand report to President Kennedy on America's assistance to that country in its fight against the communist Viet Cong guerrillas. Johnson's travels on behalf of the Kennedy administration have taken him to many other parts of the globe. Together with his wife, the vice president traveled to Asia. In India, the former teacher presided at the opening of a college and laid its foundation stone. In Pakistan, he made the acquaintance of a camel driver, Bashir Ahmed. The two men became friends. After Johnson returned to the United States, Ahmed repaid the visit. Early in his political career, Lyndon Johnson learned from his friend and mentor, Sam Rayburn, that politics is the art of the possible. It was something he never forgot. And when Speaker Sam Rayburn died, it was both President Kennedy and Vice President Johnson who attended the funeral. This was a solemn occasion. The passing of an old friend, a mentor and a great legislator. Again, tragedy came to the world. When United Nations Secretary General Doug Hammersheld died in a plane crash in the Congo in the fall of 1961, it was Lyndon Johnson who acted as the representative of the United States at the Great World Leaders' Funeral. As head of the President's Committee on Space, Johnson met with both American and Soviet astronauts and with a family of United States astronaut, John Glenn. He acted as a principal spokesman for American Space Programs, heading the Advisory National Space Council. One of the Vice President's trips abroad took him to Rome. To Manet in the square of St. Peter's, it was the first sight of the man who is now President of the United States. In private audience with the world beloved Pope John, the American statesman once again pledged his country's devotion to peace. Lyndon Johnson's belief in justice extended far beyond the borders of the United States. Johnson flew to the divided city of Berlin, carrying with him his country's assurances that free Germans would not stand alone. A sense of crisis was in the air. Germans on both sides of the border were incensed. And Lyndon Johnson came swiftly to the scene to calm their anxiety. He told West Berliners, Slowly soft spoken, Johnson can be determined and vigorous on such subjects as racial equality. Get him a goal is for every American to receive exact and even and equal justice, regardless of his race or his color. At a meeting of the Organization of American States in Washington, Johnson spoke on behalf of the Kennedy Administration's Alliance for Progress. Incompatible of our hemisphere's future. All the totalitarianisms are unacceptable and intolerable in our midst. If we're to keep our hemisphere moving forward, our first and our foremost task together is to keep it free and to keep it in peace. And this we shall do. The Alliance for Progress is based upon the concept that we have an urgent necessity and a moral obligation to work together for the mutual advantage of all of our people. Forced by the introduction of rocket missiles into Cuba, the United States instituted a naval quarantine of the island. Johnson spoke. This was the first time that the Soviet has attempted to establish its own missiles on the soil of any satellite nation. And second, the maneuver by all odds was the longest gamble ever deliberately undertaken in Soviet or Russian history. The success of our response to the Soviet threat in Cuba was not success won merely by litter's exchange, our troops deployed during the third week of October. That success was the consequence of continuing efforts that our country has been making for more than 15 years and, yes, for more than 150 years. In the wake of that success, realism requires us to hold steadfastly on our course, not doing less, but attempting to do what more of the times require to assure our total strength. The vice president's journeys on behalf of President Kennedy seemingly kept him traveling as few vice presidents have ever traveled. The eyes, the ears, and when needed, the voice of the American administration and its policies. From the opening of a trade fair to meetings with the heads of state, he was the president's trusted representative. When he talked to kings or prime ministers, it was as though they were talking to President Kennedy. For the president's faith in Lyndon B. Johnson was stated and complete. It was only natural for Vice President Johnson to accompany President Kennedy and his wife to Dallas, Texas on that fateful day when tragedy struck the American people in the midst of a sunny afternoon. Within a matter of minutes after debarkation from the plane, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was dead by an assassin's bullet. Such is the continuity of American government and policy, that within two hours, Lyndon B. Johnson had taken the oath of office and the command of a nation in shock and grief. This oath was taken within the plane that had carried the former president to Dallas. Mrs. John F. Kennedy stood at his side throughout the ceremony. Together with a dead president, they journeyed back to Washington. And only then did Lyndon B. Johnson, 36th president of the United States, with his wife by his side and overcome by grief, make his first public statement to the nation and the world. I suffered a loss that cannot be waived. For me, it is a deep personal tragedy. I know that the world shares the sorrow that Mrs. Kennedy and her family bear. I will do my best. That is all I can do. I ask for your help and God's.